The Bitter Season

"#1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag returns to the bestselling series of her career with a Kovac and Liska case that will delight fans and new readers alike. A murder from the past. A murder from the present. And a life that was never meant to be... As the dreary, bitter weather of late fall descends on Minneapolis, Detective Nikki Liska is restless. After moving to the cold case squad in order to spend more time with her sons, she misses the rush of pulling an all-nighter, the sense of urgency of hunting a murderer on the loose. Most of all she misses her old partner, Sam Kovac. Sam is having an even harder time adjusting to Nikki's absence, saddled with a green new partner younger than pieces of Sam's wardrobe. Sam is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a middle-aged husband and wife bludgeoned and hacked to death in their home with a ceremonial Japanese samurai sword. Nikki's case, the unsolved murder of a family man, community leader, and decorated sex crimes detective for the Minneapolis PD, is less of a distraction: Twenty years later, there is little hope for finding the killer who got away. On the other end of the spectrum, Minneapolis resident Evi Burke has a life she only dreamed of as a kid in and out of foster homes: a beautiful home, a family, people who love her, a fulfilling job. Little does she know that a danger from her past is stalking her perfect present. A danger powerful enough to pull in both Kovac and Liska and destroy the perfect life she was never meant to have"--Provided by publisher.

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Hurray! I have finally found a mystery writer who is, to me, on a par with my beloved Louise Penny. And that despite the fact that the Tami Hoag book I grabbed off the New Releases shelf is the sixth (and last) in her Kovac and Liska series. My preference is always to start with the first book in order to absorb the characters' development as the story progresses across multiple novels. How did I get so lucky to find an author capable of producing a book that is both a standalone and a continuation at the same time? Dunno'. What I do know is that I will be ordering "Ashes to Ashes" (1999) in which readers meet detectives Kovac and Liska for the first time, and then I'll proceed from there. Guess I shouldn't be so surprised by Hoag's deftness in plot and character development. She's had 15 consecutive books on the New York Times bestseller list. I highly recommend that you read this one.

What a great read! Took me a bit to get it read, but only because Ive got sick kittens, UGH! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Liska! I was sure I had it figured out, was I wrong! I definitely give this 5 stars and going to start another of Hoags novels. Happy Reading!

a very complex and engrossing work of fiction. characters are multi-dimensional and have real personalities. a work of fiction that shows a life of crime can happen to anyone and occurs by choice. a life of honesty and hard work may seem too hard for criminals to lead,but a life of crime is much harder,much less rewarding, and self-defeating in the end.

trevordunfordswife
Nov 10, 2016

EXCELLENT, excellent mysteries - two of them. Will keep you guessing right until the bitter end. Ugly people in ugly situations throughout. Hoag never ceases to come up with new plots and wonderful characters in her novels: she really is a first class writer of mysteries. If you enjoy whodunits, this is definitely for you.

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Murder was a solution arrived at by different means, depending on the motive. In the heat of passion or rage, there was no forethought. It was an act triggered from a part of the brain where motion and instinct lived. In other cases, the motivation for murder was built one step, one transgression, one insult at a time, layer by layer, unit the mind could make an argument for a violent solution to an untenable situation.